Pork is the lone meat I still buy, in no small part because I have access to heritage pork raised the old way, with a varied diet and generally darker and fattier meat than that crap you get at the supermarket. I do routinely shoot wild hogs, too, and they are excellent for this recipe.

Wild pigs are especially good for lonzino, which is a fabulous dry-cured cut of pork that ages into a lovely pink, slices well and tastes not unlike a good cured ham. The Spanish call this same thing lomo. And if you coat the meat with a certain set of spices, it becomes the Armenian favorite basturma.

You use the loin of the pig for this recipe. Trimmed of all sinew, and, depending on your preference, fat. I prefer my lonzino lean, but some people love the fat v. lean you get with each bite. Either way works.

The coolest thing about lonzino is how easy and relatively quickly you can make it. Unlike prosciutto, which takes more than a year, lonzino can be ready in a month.

The only special equipment you need is curing salt and a cool place to hang your loins. You can get curing salt, Instacure No. 2 online, and your hanging place can be anywhere that isn’t bone dry (70 to 80 percent humidity is good) and is anywhere from 40°F to 60°F.

And like I mentioned at the beginning of this, you also need good pork. Lonzino highlights the innate qualities in your pork, so if it is factory-farmed you will very definitely notice – especially if it is put up next to a piece of quality pork. So do youself a favor and buy the good stuff.

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Photo by Holly A. Heyser

Lonzino, Air Cured Pork Loin

All lonzino is is air-cured pork loin, a lean cut that cures easily if you follow these directions. It is best served as is, although it makes a great sandwich. You could also dice it as a substitute for any of the Spanish ham recipes that call for diced Serrano ham (and there are a lot of them). It is silky, only a little salty, and you get a hint of the spices that help cure the meat with every bite. This is a subtle meat.

Makes a 1 1/2 pound cured lonzino.

Prep Time: 24 days

Cook Time: n/a

A 3 pound piece of whole pork loin or boar loin

60 gramskosher salt

15 gramssugar

6 gramsInstaCure No. 2, also known as Prague Cure No. 2

10 gramsblack pepper

5 gramsgarlic powder

5 gramsground cloves

10 gramsonion powder

8 gramsdried thyme

Mix all the dry ingredients. Rub them well into the loin, then put the meat into a plastic bag or wrap with plastic wrap. This is to keep it from drying out. Keep the meat refrigerated for 12 days.

On the 12th day, remove from the wrap, rinse it off and then let it dry on a rack for 2 to 3 hours. I use a portable fan set on low to oscillate over the meat.

Truss the meat with kitchen twine (the white stuff) as you would a roast. Leave a long loop at one end so you can hang the meat. You can also use pre-made sausage netting.

Hang the meat in a cool place to dry. It needs to be humid, about 70 percent humidity. How long? At least another 12 days. It should feel firm throughout and be a pleasing red. How long can you hang it? Up to six months or more, but it will become harder and drier the longer it hangs. If you’ve found you have dried it too much, let it go all the way to hard-as-a-rock stage. Then use a microplane grater to grate the dried meat over pasta or rice.

To store: Wrap tightly in butcher paper or, better yet, vacuum seal pieces of it – I cut the loin into three chunks – and freeze. Unfrozen, it will last indefinitely in the fridge, but it will continue to dry out.

NOTE: White mold is your friend. Green mold is no fun, and black mold is dangerous. At the first sight of green or black mold, wipe down the meat with a cloth wetted with vinegar.

48 responses to “Lonzino, Air Cured Pork Loin”

Hank,
Great to see write up’s like these. I’ve managed to get hold of a copy of Ruhlman & Polcyn’s ‘Charcuterie’ over here and it’s a great read. If our two countries are supposed to be great allies how come we can’t get more of your books?!
Happy curing.

You had me at ‘cured pork’.
My interest in cured items is at an all-time high. We’re moving in April and plans are underway for the construction of both a wine cellar, and a cellar appropriate for dry-curing meats. I cannot wait. I will likely be digging through your posts later this year to give this a shot.

When you say pork “loin” do you mean the tender loins or the backstraps? It just so happens I am in possession of some Flordia wild piggy that fell to the spear back in January. I think this would be a noble application.

Humidity is VERY important. My suggestion would be to run a humidifer next to the hanging meat when the ambient humidity gets that low. You want it to dry slowly and evenly; low humidity hardens the outside before the inside can dry properly, and it rots. Ew.

Great blog, thanks for the info! I have one now in the fridge with the cure on it going on a week now. I’m planning on curing it in a cooler in my basement. That way I can control the humidity because it is bone dry down there naturally.

Hi Hank, I’m dry curing Lonzino, I’m at day 20 of 30, I read above that white mold is good to see on the meat, I’m starting to see some on mine, I didn’t use a casing, I followed the advice of someone who said that they brushed olive oil at day 1 of dry-curing. My question is 1. Should I let the white mold build up until day 30 or should I rub it off with a vinegar/water mix? 2. At the end of the dry-curing time, should the white mold be taken off before eating?

Ted: I’d let the white mold grow — if it is dry mold. If it is fuzzy like a cotton ball, wipe it off with vinegar. And I eat it when the lonzino is ready. BUT, if you are allergic to penicillin, wipe off all white mold. In many cases the white mold IS penicillin…

Love the blog.
Just got done building a little cold room in a corner of my basement for my lonzino. Keeping a steady 52F. Had to add a humidifier to get it up to 85%. Outa of the cure today and ready to hang. I forgot to order casings. I want to try the olive oil rub down ,or do you think larding would be better?

Kevin: Remember to drop the humidity back toward 60% over time as the lonzino ages. Ratchet it down every week or two by a little. I don’t case my lonzino. I’ve never tried the olive oil rub, but smearing lard on it will work pretty well.

Stumbled across this site while looking for ways to cure pork. Living in N’Awlins, there ain’t no such thang as a basement, unless you fancy an indoor swimming pool. (I’m on HIGH ground, FIVE FEET above sea level!) Been trying to figure out where I could put a refrigerator-cure box, but I don’t have a garage (Hurricane Katrina took it), never had a porch, and the house is too small for another fridge.

I make a bunch of things for myself because I cannot, for medical reasons, have any sugar, starch, natural or artificial flavorings, etc. etc. etc.

Every recipe I see for a ham-like recipe uses sugar, scorch it. Which means, assuming I can create a cure box, I could make the above recipe, but could not eat it myself, which is the whole point of do-it-yourself.

Marilyn: Don’t know what to tell you about the curing setup, but if you want to leave out the sugar, go right ahead. It’s only there for flavor. And, um, there is no corn syrup in any of my recipes.

As for the spices and herbs, those qualify as natural flavorings, so leave them out, too. Bottom line: If you want a very basic lonzino, use only the salt and curing salt. If you fear nitrates, don’t do this recipe if you are a beginner. You have to be a skilled charcutiere to make this without the protection of the Instacure.

David: It’s not ideal, and in the first couple weeks of curing is especially bad. I never let my charcuterie get above 60 degrees until it is very far along. Once it’s more or less cured, i.e., a few weeks, temperature matters less.

Two more quick questions. I found a place that is cooler, but it is also somewhat dusty, and has a lower humidity (that I could not really control). Would trussing it in some cheese cloth or muslin help solve the humidity problem as it would create somewhat of a microclimate inside the cloth?

I have a very basic question: Do I need to cook the lonzino before I eat it?
We enjoyed some ‘cold smoked’ ham in northern Germany several years ago – right at the place where they cured it. Quite an interesting operation, and delicious. So, I’m wondering if the Lonzino could be in the same family?
Love your site!!! I’ve got a 3-lb loin started and in the cure right now. Anxious to taste the results.

Hank,
I am new to your web site. As an avid hunter and fisherman as well as being deeply interested in cooking it seems tailor made for me. I have been fortunate enough to bag plenty of ducks and several wild boar and deer each of the past few years. I usually wind up giving a lot of the meat away for fear of letting it freezer burn before my family can consume it all. Your recipes will help keep a good variety of dishes in rotation at my house. I have recently built a couple of curing chambers and have only cured pork belly in a few different styles. I am very interested in trying a lonzino venison back strap. Will it really work well? My fear is that there is not enough fat for flavor. Would you change anything in your recipe specifically for venison? I have one thawing in the fridge right now. Also do you think dry curing wild duck breast is a waste of time? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks and regards.

You are so right about buying quality pork for making lonzino. But it does make me wonder why all the seasonings you add to the cure are also not fresh. Sorry, but garlic powder doesn’t cut it against minced fresh garlic. Ditto for the onions. Dried thyme can’t hold a candle to fresh. I think you’ll notice a huge difference if you go to the real thing. I made some guanciale last year. It was late Friday night and I didn’t have any fresh thyme. I used dried, rather than wait until morning and picking up some fresh from an herb grower at our local farmer’s market. Big mistake! It just was not the same aroma and flavor.

For Jacob V up above: your lonzino should lose between 30% to 35% of its weight during the drying process. The key, though, to great lonzino is the correct humidity while it’s drying. As Hank has already said, if it dries too quickly because the humidity is not sufficient, the outside will be hard long before the inside has dried sufficiently. My basement where my cured meats hang can drop below 70% in the dead of winter, and that’s when I have to get out the humidifier to bump it back up. Didn’t bother once, and it was a huge mistake that I won’t be repeating!

I’m not going to be able to take the loin that I’ve got out at the 12-day mark. It’s going to be more like 15-16 days when I get home from a work trip. How will this affect the meat? Will it just be saltier?

I’ve got a lonzino drying right now with that stuff. just started drying some salami with it too. will know in a few weeks how it will work but from just looking at it week and a few days in seems to be drying nice . the material is kinda expensive but it seems to regulate humidity better than a casing does.

When using raw pork, do you worry about Trichinosis? I know freezing the meat takes care of that, but I don’t want to ruin the meat either. Any suggestions? This is my first time curing meat and I want to be safe.

I dry cured some pieces of pork butt (about 2 lbs apiece and 3 in thick) in the fridge for about 2 weeks. Rinsed off the cure and added spices. wrapped them in cheescloth and hung in basement. temp was always between 55-60 but humidity would stay between 50-60 also. After 2 weeks decided to close in area and use pan of water and small humidifier. Got humidity up to 70-75 yesterday. today it was up to 99! shut off humidifier and opened front off chamber to let humidity out. will further try to regulate today. do you think I may have caused harm that i cannot rectify? Meat is damp now . should I dry them off or pull them out of chamber? any suggestions. some people have said to freeze for a week and let thaw in fridge then rehang. thanks joe

I just love making and eating Lonzino loin or tenderloin. your recipe is by far the best. I’m on my 3rd batch. Thanks
to Joe the comment above, it’s better to be on the less humidity side. If its to dry just wrap the meat in a cheesecloth soaked in red wine for 3 to 5 days than hang it up for a week.